How have your quiet times during quarantine been?
One would think that with all the extra time we have on our hands during self-quarantine that we would be super consistent with our quiet times. Or be reading the Bible for hours a day. Or pray constantly.
Today, I’m going to share five practical tips for being consistent when you aren’t leaving your house.
How to Stay Consistent with your Quiet Times during Quarantine
1. Have a plan
“If you fail to plan you plan to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin
I have found that when I know what I’m going to be reading in the Bible that day, I’m 90% more likely to actually have my quiet time as opposed to when I go into it with no idea what I’m going to be doing.
Currently, I’m making my way through a “Read The Bible In One Year” plan that’s in the back of my Bible, and at the beginning of the year, I decided to stretch it out to be a two-year plan instead of a one year plan to be realistic and to set a doable goal.
Last year, I used *The Daily Grace Co‘s studies a bunch (*affiliate link). I love this company so much and I made a YouTube video reviewing the company and various Bible studies I’ve used from them.
Check it out:
2. Have an Accountability Partner
My second tip for quiet times during quarantine is to have an accountability partner. Someone who you can check in with daily or weekly to see how each other have been doing with your quiet time.
I prefer to read out of my physical Bible rather than an app. However, I have heard cool things about the YouVersion Bible App.
My boyfriend is a youth intern at his church and he uses the YouVersion Bible App with some of his students who also have the app. They are able to do the same plans as each other and hold each other accountable for reading each day.
3. Be Reminded
Sometimes I just plain forget to read my Bible. 😬 Can you relate? And my prayers throughout the day tend to be what I call “flare-prayers,” prayers that I quickly say when I think of something and then I carry on my day.
I hate it when I’m literally drifting off to sleep at 11:30 and realize I didn’t read the Bible that day. Or worse- waking up and realizing I skipped yesterday entirely.
So, a simple solution is to create a system to remind me to read the Bible.
Some ideas you could use to be reminded to have your quiet times during quarantine are…
- Use a reminder app on your phone and set a daily reminder to have your quiet time
- Set an alarm on your phone to go off at a certain time each day.
- Put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror that says “Quiet Time.” (This would be the least effective for me personally… I start to ignore any notes I put on my mirror after a few days and tune them out.)
Think about how you like to be reminded about other things and just use whatever that is to remind you to have your quiet time.
I think this is especially important when it comes to our quiet times during quarantine… even though we’re at home, our usual routines are totally thrown off. If you usually read the Bible before you go to school and now you’re not leaving the house, your natural reminder of “read before I leave” no longer exists.
4. Set a Goal
I recently discovered the app Habit Bull from the Facebook group I’m in as a part of my The Balanced Life membership. Someone there were asking what apps people use to track their consistency with pilates and there were tons of responses suggesting Habit Bull.
I decided to download this app and so far it’s been great!
I’m tracking how consistent I am for pilates, journaling, Bible reading, and using my Kindara app.
It’s cool because you’re able to just check off what you did that day. Then it gives you weekly and monthly data to show you how consistent you are and which habits you’re more consistent at than others.
You can also set goals for how many days in a row you want to do something. I usually start mine at 21 days because it’s said that that’s how long it takes to build a habit.
I tend to be very motivated by streaks and I don’t want to break them. For example, I have a 934-day streak in my TimeHop app LOL! And back when I used Duolingo, I dedicated myself to keeping up a streak there too.
Now, I know that reading my Bible and spending time with God needs to be more important than just doing it to check off an app or keep up a streak. BUT noticing your patterns and knowing how often I’m actually reading my Bible helps me rebuild the habit of daily quiet times especially if it’s been a while.
And on that note…
5. Give Yourself Grace
If you fail or miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. Just pick up your Bible and read and pray today. I have an entire post about what to do when you “fall behind” you might want to check out.
Don’t let the whole streak concept keep you from reading the Bible. It can be discouraging if you miss a day and suddenly you have to start again at zero. However, the important thing is starting again.
Think of a baby- if she gave up on walking every time she trips and falls, she’ll never learn to walk.
We have to get up and walk forward even when we fall.
Do you have any other tips for quiet times during quarantine?
If so, let me know in a comment!
I hope these were helpful to you, my friend :)
I’ll talk to you again soon!
Blessings,
Kara
P.S. Let’s connect on Instagram if we haven’t already! (@kara_beth17)
